- Click on the “create an account” link (above the Username box).
- Enter the required information. Important: Your Username, a.k.a. Login ID, should only contain lowercase letters and numbers. Your display name, i.e. the field to the right of your Username, can include any characters, including spaces, and you can make it as descriptive as you’d like.
- Click the “Complete Sign-up” button.
- The next page will say “Sign Up Complete!”, but you are not done yet…
- You can either upload an avatar at this time, or do it later. See instructions elsewhere in this document for adding/changing your avatar.
- You need to activate your account by clicking on the link in the confirmation email that you should have received. If your email account doesn’t allow you to click on links, then paste the URL into a browser window.
- Congratulations, you’re done! Clicking on the link will take you to the website and you can log in for the first time. The next section in this guide will tell you about the various features available to you on the website.
- If you receive an error message saying that the activation failed, first try to log in before asking for help. If you can’t get logged in, please see the next section on common problems.
- Did you receive the confirmation email after you registered?
If not, check your spam folder. Some spam filters are over-zealous!
- Did you click on the link in the confirmation email?
Until you do this your registration isn’t complete.
- Make sure you log in using your username, not your display name.
If your username is plummer59 and your display name is Joe (plummer59), do NOT try to login using Joe (plummer59).
- Are you receiving an error message that your username can only contain lowercase letters and numbers?
Make sure that there aren’t and dashes, spaces, or any other characters in your username, just lowercase letters and numbers.
- Are you trying to login using your eBay user account?
Please be aware that this site is in no way associated with eBay and you MUST register on this site before you can log in to it.
- Did you forget either your username or password or both?
Just click on the LOGIN button and leave those fields blank. At the bottom of the next page that is displayed you will see a link labeled “Lost your password?”. Click on the link and follow the instructions that it provides.
- What username (login ID) are you registering?
- Which board (glass, pottery, etc.)?
- What email address are you registering with?
- What is the error message you are receiving (if any)?
- Activity Stream
By default the “activity stream” or “Site Activity”, which includes messages, posts, and new member announcements, is displayed on the main page. Clicking on “Home” or “Refresh Messages” will refresh the page. You do not need to be a member to view the site activity.
- @username Mentions
This feature is useful for notifying another member that you’ve mentioned them in one of your posts. Simply entering @their_user_name in your post activates this feature and will send the member a message that will show up in their “Notifications”. If you are unsure of the username, go to the “Members” tab, select the member from the list and then click on the “Mention this User” button. The “post” window will open and the @username will already be poplulated in the textbox. Note: We’re not sure how useful this feature will be. If it becomes more of a problem than a feature, then the Webmaster will delve into the code and try to remove it.
- Send Messages
Use the messaging functionality if you’d like to send another member a private message which they will receive the next time they log in. To send the message go to the “Members” tab, select the member, then click on the “Send Private Message” button. When they log in or refresh the page, the number of messages they have waiting for them will appear at the top of the page next to the “Notifications” link. Clicking on this number will take them to the messages. For detailed instructions on how to use this feature, see the “How To Use Email” in the “How To” section below.
- Flag a Post as Inappropriate
Clicking the “Flag” button that appears at the end of every message posted will report the post to the webmaster. This is similar to the “report” button you may be familiar with from eBay. You won’t see a flag on your own posts for the obvious reason that you shouldn’t be flagging yourself. If a post is flagged by five different members, then an automated email will be sent to the person who posted the message. The email will not reveal who flagged the post, so flagging is anonymous. Only the webmaster can see who flagged it. At this point the person receiving the automated warning should seriously consider deleting their post. If the post is still there when the webmaster reviews it and he agrees that the post is inappropriate, then the post WILL be deleted and the member who posted the message will receive a warning. If the member voluntarily deletes a “flagged” message (or any message) before the webmaster has a chance to react to it, then no warning will be sent. Members who receive repeated warnings will be subject to having their account suspended and/or removed. Your account could be suspended with as few as 3 warnings, depending on the severity of the messages that have been flagged. Obviously some offenses will be worse than others, and the webmaster recognizes the possibility that just because a message has been flagged does not necessarily mean that the post is inappropriate. However, so that the webmaster does not give the appearance of being arbitrary or of playing favorites here is one hard-and-fast rule that WILL be followed: If a message is flagged by at least 10 members, then it WILL be deleted by the webmaster, and the person who posted it WILL receive a warning, regardless of how appropriate the message may or may not be. Basically, the webmaster doesn’t want to spend his valuable time policing your posts, so between the automated email and your ability to delete your own posts, the site is designed to be self-policing. So if you feel that a post is inappropriate but you don’t flag it, then you can’t complain.
- Bookmark “Favorite” Messages
If you read a message that you especially like, you can add it to your “Favorites”. Just click on the “Favorite” button at the end of the post. To revisit your favorites click on your linked name (above the Logout button), select the Activity tab, and click on the “Favorites” sub-menu link. Note: Your “Favorites” can be viewed by other members (who must be logged in), so add them judiciously.
- Avatars -You can associate an image with your account that will be displayed next to your posts and on your member page. You can change your avatar at any time. This feature is optional, but we encourage you to use it.
- Add Permanent Posts to the Sidebar
Do you have some useful information that you had to post frequently on your old board because it would scroll off every few days? Then send this information to the Webmaster who will set up a separate page for it and add it permanently as a link in the sidebar.
- Displaying Images In Your Posts
This capability is temporarily turned off. You can still link to images by using the <a> tag, but you can’t use the <img> tag.
- An HTML “tag” is used to instruct your browser about how to display or format a section of text.
- A “tag” looks like this: <sometag>
- Some tags require a “closing” tag. This is true when the tag is affecting the appearance of a section of text. The closing tag tells the browser where to stop applying the special formatting. A closing tag looks like this: </sometag> Notice that the closing tag looks the same as the opening tag except that it includes a forward slash after the less-than symbol.
| Output Needed | Method | HTML Syntax | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| bold type | html | <b>this is bold</b> | this is bold |
| html + css | <span style=”font-weight:bold”>this is bold</span> | this is bold | |
| italic type | html | <i>this is italic</i> | this is italic |
| text color | html | <font color=red>this text is red</font> | this text is red |
| centered text | html | <center>this text is centered</center> | |
| change the font size | html + css | <span style=”font-size: 18px;”>This text is set to 18 pixels high. The default size is 14 pixels.</span> | This text is set to 18 pixels high. The default size is 14 pixels. |
| Link to a Web Page | html | <a href=”http://www.google.com”>Click here to go to Google</a> | Click here to go to Google |
| Link to a picture | html | <a href=”http://www.google.com/intl/en_com/images/srpr/logo1w.png”>Click here to view the Google logo</a> | Click here to view the Google logo |
| Hide text (“shush“) (Please note that the “shush” tag uses square braces around it, e.g. [ and ], instead of the usual html enclosures, i.e. < and >) |
custom tag | Here’s some hidden text: [shush]Hide this text, e.g. the punchline to a joke, bawdy humor, a large section of text that would require lots of scrolling or may be uninteresting to most viewers, or anything that could potentially offend some viewers.[/shush] | Here’s some hidden text: Read More continued... Hide this text, e.g. the punchline to a joke, bawdy humor, a large section of text that would require lots of scrolling or may be uninteresting to most viewers, or anything that could potentially offend some viewers. |
| Hide text w/ Specified Reason | custom tag | Here’s some hidden text: [shush reason=”boring story”]Hide this text, e.g. the punchline to a joke, bawdy humor, a large section of text that would require lots of scrolling or may be uninteresting to most viewers, or anything that could potentially offend some viewers.[/shush] (Note: if the reason is more than one word, as in this example, then it needs to be inside quotes.) | Here’s some hidden text: boring story: View More continued...
Hide this text, e.g. the punchline to a joke, bawdy humor, a large section of text that would require lots of scrolling or may be uninteresting to most viewers, or anything that could potentially offend some viewers. |
| Hide “bawdy” text | custom tag + custom reason | Here’s an off-color joke called “The Farmer and the Kid”: [shush reason=bawdy]This text is a placeholder for the actual joke.[/shush] | Here’s an off-color joke called “The Farmer and the Kid”: Bawdy Content: Read More continued... This text is a placeholder for the actual joke. |
| Hide “spoiler” text | custom tag + custom reason | In the last scene you find out that… [shush reason=spoiler]…he’s been dead the whole time.[/shush] | In the last scene you find out that… Spoiler Alert: Read More continued... …he’s been dead the whole time. |
| Hide the “punchline” of a joke | custom tag + custom reason | Why did the chicken cross the road? [shush reason=punchline]To get to the other side.[/shush] | Why did the chicken cross the road? View Punchline continued... To get to the other side. |
| Hide the “answer” to a trivia question | custom tag + custom reason | Which state was the 2nd state to join the union?[shush reason=answer]The Constitution came into effect only when ratified by nine states, so properly speaking there was no “second state to enter the Union” – the first nine all entered together. However, if the second state to ratify is regarded as the second to enter the Union, that was Pennsylvania, on December 12, 1787 The second state to enter after the original thirteen was Kentuicky in 1792. [/shush] | Which state was the 2nd state to join the union? Get the Answer continued... The Constitution came into effect only when ratified by nine states, so properly speaking there was no “second state to enter the Union” – the first nine all entered together. However, if the second state to ratify is regarded as the second to enter the Union, that was Pennsylvania, on December 12, 1787 The second state to enter after the original thirteen was Kentuicky in 1792. |
| Hide a large block of text w/ “continued” | custom tag + custom reason | Here are 100 tips for improving your auction: [shush reason=continued]1. If I had 100 tips I’d list them here…[/shush] | Here are 100 tips for improving your auction: Continued... continued... 1. If I had 100 tips I’d list them here… |
| Smiley | Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🙂 | :) | :-) | :smile: |
| 😆 | :lol: | ||
| 😀 | :D | :-D | :grin: |
| 😳 | :oops: | ||
| 🙁 | :( | :-( | :sad: |
| 😥 | :cry: | ||
| 😮 | :o | :-o | :eek: |
| 👿 | :evil: | ||
| 😯 | 8O | 8-O | :shock: |
| 😈 | :twisted: | ||
| 😕 | :? | :-? | :???: |
| 🙄 | :roll: | ||
| 8) | 8) | 8-) | :cool: |
| ❗ | :!: | ||
| 😡 | :x | :-x | :mad: |
| ❓ | :?: | ||
| 😛 | :P | :-P | :razz: |
| 💡 | :idea: | ||
| 😐 | :| | :-| | :neutral: |
| ➡ | :arrow: | ||
| 😉 | ;| | ;-| | :wink: |
 |
:mrgreen: |
Smiley not showing up?
- Type a space before and after your smiley text. That prevents the smiley being accidentally included in the text around it.
- Make sure not to use quotes or other punctuation marks before and after the smiley text.
Quick Tutorials:
How To Log In
- Go to the website’s home page by either clicking on the “Home” tab at the top of any page on the website, or click on the “Refresh Messages” link in the sidebar.
- In the upper-right of the page you should see 2 text fields.
- In the field labeled “Username (Login ID)” enter the login ID you requested when you registered. Do not confuse this field with your “display name”.
- Enter your password.
- Click the “Log In” button
How To Post a Message
- If you are not logged into the website, then you need to do that first.
- If you’re logged in but don’t see a textbox at the top of the page with the label “Post your messages here:”, then you need to get back to the main page. To do that either click on the “Home” tab at the top, or click on the “Refresh Messages” link in the sidebar.
- Enter you message in the textbox.
- Click the “Post Message” button to submit your post.
- The page will refresh and you should see your message at the top of the list.
How To Use the @Mention Feature
Note: This is the easiest method for first-time users. Veterans may simply type @username into their message. However, since this method is full-proof, i.e. you can’t misspell the other person’s username accidentally, then we recommend that you do it this way every time to avoid mistakes.
- Click on the “Members” tab.
- In the list, find the person you want to mention in your post.
- Click on their name, which is also a link.
- There is a button near the top of the new page called “Mention this User”. Click it.
- A textbox will be displayed for entering your message with the @username of the person you want to mention already in the textbox. You can type your message in front of it, behind it, or around it, just don’t delete it.
- Post your message.
- A message will be sent to the “mentioned” person letting them know that the were mentioned in your post and they will be able to click on a link to view the post.
How To Change Your “Display Name”
Note: Your “Display Name” is the name the appears on your posts and everywhere else on the website where you are mentioned. It is NOT the same as your login ID. Your login ID cannot be changed.
- If you are not logged into the website, then you need to do that first.
- Click on your name link which is at the top of the sidebar right above the “Log Out” button.
- Find the “Profile” link that is in a sub-menu directly beneath you avatar picture. You’ll find other links there such as “Activity”, “Messages”, and “Settings”. Click the “Profile” link.
- Another sub-menu will appear. Click the “Edit Profile” link.
- The first textbox field is your “Display Name”. Change it to the new name.
- Click the “Save Changes” button.
How To Add or Change Your Avatar
Note: You are given the opportunity to add an avatar when you register, but you can also do it afterwards, or change it as often as you like, by following these instructions.
Additional Note: If you’d like to crop your image before uploading it, crop it to a size of 150 x 150 pixels.
Tip: Some members have reported problems when trying to create an avatar from a very large picture. Also, the larger the picture the longer that it takes to upload. I recommend that you resize the picture to a manageable “web” size before uploading. For example, most modern cameras take pictures at a very high resolution. Trying to view those pictures at full-size on a computer screen requires a lot of scrolling. If you first reduce that picture to a width of 800 pixels (or less), the file will be much smaller for uploading and you’ll have an easier time cropping it to the 150×150 pixels that will be the actual size of your avatar. Many graphics programs have a setting for automatically resizing pictures for the web, so you may want to look for that feature. Using a .jpg file seems to be a good bet.
- If you are not logged into the website, then you need to do that first.
- Click on your name link which is at the top of the sidebar right above the “Log Out” button.
- Find the “Profile” link that is in a sub-menu directly beneath you avatar picture. You’ll find other links there such as “Activity”, “Messages”, and “Settings”. Click the “Profile” link.
- Another sub-menu will appear. Click the “Change Avatar” link.
- Click the “Browse” button displayed below the general information about avatars.
- An upload window will pop-up. Go to the folder where the picture you want to use is located.
- Select the picture (click once), and then click the “Open” button at the bottom of the window.
- You should be back on the page where you clicked the Browse button, and there should be a path address to your picture in the textbox next to the button.
- Click the “Upload Image” button (to the right of the Browse button). Depending on the size of your image the upload could take a few seconds.
- Now you should see 2 images side-by-side. The uploaded image is on the left, and a cropped view of it is on the right. It’s unlikely that the default crop of your picture is what you want, so click on the crop box in the lefthand (original) picture and drag it and/or resize it around the area of the image that should be your avatar.
- Click the “Crop Image” button.
How To Delete Your Own Post
Note: As with many of the features on this website, there is more than one way to delete your own posts. These instructions are for the easiest method.
- If you are not logged into the website, then you need to do that first.
- Click the “Home” tab at the top, or Refresh Messages from the sidebar.
- Find the post that you want to delete.
- In the infomation bar at the top of your post you should see a link labeled “Delete”. Click it.
- The page will automatically refresh and your post should be gone.
How To Find a Post or Tell Someone How To Find It
Situation: You want someone else to take a look at a specific post you saw, or, you want to revisit a post you’ve already seen. The point is that it’s no longer near the top of the list or even on the fist page, so how do you find it without feeling frustrated?
Note: As with many of the features on this website, there is more than one way to this, so several methods are listed below.
If you remember who wrote it, then…
- Click on the “Members” tab at the top of the page.
- Since there are several pages of members, scrolling down the page is not likely to be helpful. Instead, put your cursor in the search field at the top of the page and enter all or part of the user’s name. For example, you can enter, webmaster, or, web, or, master, or just mast, and regardless of which of these you search on, the Webmaster will be returned in the list.
- After entering the search value, click Search.
- A list of Member records will be displayed.
- Click on the member’s name and you will then be shown a listing of all of their posts.
- Find the post in the list.
- If it’s a post that you think you’ll want to refer to again in the future, then click the “Favorite” button at the bottom of the post. It will then be added to your favorites which you can review at any time by clicking on your own name in the upper-right corner, and then clicking on the “Favorites” link under the “Activity” tab.
- You’ll either need to find it the hard way by scrolling through all of the messages, or you’ll need to wait for the SEARCH functionality that will be added to the website in the future.
- Add it to your favorites and then have the other person take a look at your favorites.
- Right-click on the “View” link in the header of the post.
- If you’re using IE, select “Copy Shortcut” from the list.
- If you’re using Firefox, select “Copy Link Location” from the list.
- Either paste the shortcut into an email to them, or send them a message via the website’s built-in messaging functionality, or add your own post and paste the link into it.
How To Use the Messaging Feature
Note: You must be logged in to use this functionality.
Sending a Message:
- From the home page, click on the avatar or name of the person to whom you wish to send the email.
- You will be taken to the “member” page for this person. Near the top of the page will be a button labeled “Send Private Message”. Click this button.
- You will be taken to your Compose Messages page and the person’s name will already will already be displayed under the “Send To” label. The empty box next to the person’s name is for additional Usernames, so it is okay to leave this box empty.
- Enter the “Subject” and the “Message”, and when you’re done scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Send Message” button.
Two things will happen after the message is sent:
- The message will be emailed to the users personal email account (the one they used to register). When they receive the email, they will not see your personal email address, instead they will see that it came from noreply@chatroomboard.com. They should not hit the “Reply” button to respond. If you want them to reply to your personal email address, then you should include your email address in your message. As you can see, The email addresses of both the sender and recipient are kept private. The sender never sees the recipients email address and the recipient never sees the senders email address.
- The message will be delivered to the person’s message inbox on the website. The next time the person logs in or refreshes their screen, the will see a highlighted number at the top of the screen (in the dark gray bar) to the right of the “Notifications” link. This number indicates how many messages are waiting for the user to read. When the user clicks on the number they will be taken to there messages page where the will see a list of all there read and unread messages. The first column shows the sender, and the second column shows the subject. To read the message they will click on the subject.
- You should NEVER hit the reply button on the message that is sent to your personal email account. This email is really just sent as courtesy so that you don’t have to be logged into the website to find out that someone sent you a message. The “From” field on these emails shows “noreply@chatroomboard.com”, so replying to this email means that you’re sending it to nobody. At the risk of stating the obvious, that is why the “from” address is “noreply”.
- Unless the person included their email address in the body of the message, you should ALWAYS reply by using the “Send a Reply” box that appears directly below the message when you read it from your message inbox on the website (see previous section above). Enter your message in the provided textbox and then click the “Send Reply” button.
How To Update Your Profile
Note: Your profile includes 4 fields that you can change at any time: 1) Your public name/alias, 2) eBay ME Page URL, 3) eBay Auctions URL, 4) About Me. Each of these fields includes a description below the textbox. URLs can be entered into the field without any special formatting.
- If you are not logged into the website, then you need to do that first.
- Click on your linked name in the upper-right corner (above the Log Out button.)
- Click on the “Profile” link located directly below your avatar.
- Click on the “Edit Profile” link located directly below the Profile link.
- Edit or Add to any of the four text fields the comprise your profile.
- When you are finished, click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
How To Find Another Member’s Auctions
Note: This assumes that the other member has completed this URL field in their profile. If you discover that they have left it blank, it may be that they signed up before this field was available and you might want to give them a gentle reminder.
- Find the most recent post of the person who’s auctions you want to view.
If they haven’t posted in some time, you can also go to the Member’s tab at the top of the page and search for them via the search box at the top of that page. - Click on the person’s linked name at the top of their post.
- Click on the “Profile” link located directly below their avatar.
- All of the profile fields that they have completed will be displayed, including their eBay auctions URL.
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